If we dont let ourselves get too hung up on just the BB/flossing aspect, the health of the sockeye return has implications beyond that one specific fishery, so it's of interest to discuss IMHO. Dont know if this will be of any value to you but on the DFO website there is a section for a scientific advisory board that publishes reports on, among many other topics, pre-season run size forecasts for Fraser River sockeye. I'm not involved in this in any way, just stumbled on it while navigating the maze that is the DFO website.
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/csas-sccs/index-eng.htmApparently for sockeye, they meet every winter around Dec/Jan and publish a report sometime around Feb/Mar for the upcoming season. It appears to be based primarily on mathematical models and previous returns which presumably then gets refined and updated with test fishery and in-river data whenever that starts around June(?) (don't know if that's exactly how it works, just guessing here). Based on previous years, the earliest guess at the 2017 season might be available in a month or two.
FWIW I believe they forecasted a lower return year in 2016 :
Link and PDF for those interestedUnfortunately as we all know, the actual numbers ended up being much worse than predicted after all was said and done and we got one of the lowest returns on record.
They have archived reports going back quite a few years if you are inclined to sift through them and see if forecasts for a particular year at all correlated with previous recreational opportunities. I dont take part in that fishery so I dont know when previous openings took place, not to mention that pre-season forecasts are subject to be highly variable, to say the least.
Man, some fresh smoked Sockeye would be a nice treat right now.
Well, if you must have sockeye that badly, you'll never get skunked at Superstore...